U.S., EU squabble over Microsoft antitrust ruling

Comments by the U.S. antitrust chief about this week’s European court ruling against Microsoft were “totally unacceptable,” said Neelie Kroes, the EU competition commissioner, during a news conference today.

To judge for yourself, here’s an excerpt from the statement Monday night by Thomas Barnett, the assistant attorney general for the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust division:

The Justice Department is “concerned that the standard applied to unilateral conduct by the (European Court of First Instance), rather than helping consumers, may have the unfortunate consequence of harming consumers by chilling innovation and discouraging competition … In the United States, the antitrust laws are enforced to protect consumers by protecting competition, not competitors. In the absence of demonstrable consumer harm, all companies, including dominant firms, are encouraged to compete vigorously. U.S. courts recognize the potential benefits to consumers when a company, including a dominant company, makes unilateral business decisions, for example to add features to its popular products or license its intellectual property to rivals, or to refuse to do so.”

To see the video of Kroes’ comments, go to this page, scroll down and click on the 14:50 time stamp. Here’s what she said:

“I think it’s totally unacceptable that a representative of the U.S. administration criticize an independent court outside its jurisdiction. And I even think it shouldn’t be done inside, but that’s not my cup of tea. It is absolutely not done. The European Commission does not pass judgment on rulings on U.S. courts, and we expect the same degree of respect from U.S. authorities for rulings by EU courts. And if the parties to a case are unhappy with the Court of First Instance ruling, they can appeal to the Court of Justice, and that is well known by those parties.”